


He's Worth It

by Taste_of_Suburbia



Category: Nurse Jackie (TV)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Exhaustion, Fever, Headaches, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Meds, Park Bench, Protective Coop, Romance, Sick Eddie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-29
Updated: 2012-09-29
Packaged: 2017-11-15 06:04:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/523953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taste_of_Suburbia/pseuds/Taste_of_Suburbia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a nice cold day sitting in the middle of the park on a bench. Eddie's feeling a little down and Coop's feeling a little cold, though all he cares about is making his best friend and boyfriend feel better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	He's Worth It

**Author's Note:**

> Can I just say… that I absolutely love these two. They are so perfect together and I wish they would just get together on the show. The chemistry is unbelievable.

“I don’t get it.”

Eddie rubs his forehead with his thumb and index finger, squeezing his eyes shut to try to suppress the oncoming dizziness, “What don’t you get?”

He’s collapsed in the middle of the park on a bench, overlooking a small pond where he’s been watching Coop feed the geese and ducks stale bread for the past half hour or so. His headache has been climbing steadily since then, and he imagines his nose is as red as Rudolph’s and raw as hell, with the way he keeps on rubbing it and it just keeps on stuffing up despite his inner protests. 

It’s December and he always catches a cold in December. Doesn’t make it suck any less this year though. 

And Coop’s nonstop talking hasn’t been helping him any, he just wants to scream at him to shut up but he has to learn how to keep his own mouth shut around him, who he blows up at far too much and it’s not fair because that’s just who Cooper is, annoying and selfish but in an adorably cute way that he cherishes all throughout the day. 

So he’ll put up with his splitting headache. For now. 

He wonders if his boyfriend just tires out from talking or if he senses that something is wrong, because ever since the past five minutes not a word has passed through his lips. His silence causes Eddie to almost open his eyes if he wasn’t so exhausted and didn’t feel like shit. It’s uncomfortable and he wonders if this means Coop is about to break down with all that’s been going on with him lately. 

Hell, he hopes not. 

The next time Eddie opens his eyes and looks up at Coop, now out of breath and leaning against the railing separating him from the pond, he notices a quizzical look on his face and he hopes against hope that his boyfriend isn’t about to ask him something that he really doesn’t want to answer. 

But then he does… and Eddie just wants to roll over and die for a second in peace. 

“Why don’t you just take an aspirin?”

Coop steps away from the barrier and sneaks up to Eddie so quietly, palming his forehead carefully, that the pharmacist wonders whether Coop has some super powers or something. 

Then Eddie starts thinking, which only inflames his raging headache more, and he realizes that Cooper usually goes unusually silent when he’s worried about him. Guess he wasn’t too inconspicuous after all, like he usually is around the doctor, not that he could be with how blurry his vision was becoming and how desperately he just didn’t want to go to work today. 

He still feels all of these things, and he’s almost at the verge of getting Coop to take him back home so he can crawl into bed and sleep there for hours. 

Eddie shrugs, leans away a little when Coop’s hand doesn’t leave his forehead. His boyfriend frowns, which is rare and something Eddie hates more than anything, and sighs softly as he sits on the cold hard bench beside him. 

“You’re burning up.”

“So?”

Eddie crosses his arms and sits up a little, trying to prove to Coop that he’s perfectly fine and feeling infinitely better than he had moments before. 

It’s pretty much in vain. 

Coop looks at him with these big concerned eyes and they nearly make Eddie melt. He doesn’t want to admit that he feels like shit but it’s becoming increasingly harder to keep up this façade when all he wants to do is curl up against Coop and let him kiss everything better. 

He is a doctor after all, so why can’t he?

Because he’s Eddie that’s why. Eddie who’s always fine and always feeling great even when he doesn’t. 

“Eddie…”

He ignores him, doesn’t even look over as he silently prays that Coop just looks away, forgets all about it and stops hovering over him like he’s a little kid about to drop dead. He doesn’t want to be sick and his boyfriend is only making it more of a reality than he deems necessary. 

Cooper takes a bottle out of his pocket and shakes it enticingly in front of Eddie, its contents rattling inside in a taunting mantra. He can’t though, he just can’t justify taking pills at this point. He still thinks of Jackie and he doesn’t pity her anymore, she enrages him because of her constant need, her constant obsession with those little fucking things and it only makes him want to throw up his breakfast. 

“Come on, just take one. For me?”

Coop’s eyes are pleading him and Eddie wants to give into what the doctor wants, obey his orders because they are so perfect but he just can’t take those goddamn pills. 

“They’re just aspirin, Eddie. Come on, you’ll feel better.”

Eddie bundles his coat closer around him, shakes his head and avoids the pout that plays across Cooper’s features. 

Why is it so hard to deny him?

Coop huffs and shoves the bottle back in his pocket, “Fine," he mumbles under his breath.

“I can’t, Coop, okay? I just don’t want to get hooked on pills.”

“Is that what this is about?” He shakes his head in disbelief, “You think you’re gonna turn into a second Jackie?”

Eddie doesn’t confirm it, just shoves his hands in his pockets and coughs, the notion of hot chocolate and a warm bed calling him so loudly. 

“It’s not gonna happen," Coop assures, “I won’t let it happen.”

“Doesn’t matter, I just don’t wanna take them.”

His boyfriend sighs lowly, but nods his head in understanding and scoots a little closer to Eddie.

“Then at least let me take you home.”

The pharmacist lets his head fall on Cooper’s shoulder, for only a split second he tells himself, since he would normally never do this in public, drop down his barriers and allow Coop to comfort him like this. He’s not that much warmer than he is but it’s enough, Eddie soaks into the doctor’s warm embrace and closes his eyes for a moment, sighing in content as Coop brushes his thumb against his forehead briefly. 

After a few minutes his boyfriend pulls away, “Come on," he helps pull Eddie up off the bench, “we’ll both take off work today.”

Eddie eyes Coop closely and bundles the coat around him further after the shaking becomes all too visible, “Let me warm you up.”

The doctor smiles as he presses his forehead up against the pharmacist’s, “But it’s my job to look after you today," he pouts before Eddie lays his cracked lips on his soft ones and kisses him gently. 

“Too bad, can’t have you turning you into an ice cube while I’m allowed to be off my game.”

He wraps his arm around Coop’s shoulders and they start walking. 

“This is nice," Eddie’s boyfriend states as they continue walking through the park, heading back towards the doctor’s place since they haven’t gotten up enough guts to buy an apartment together. 

“Yeah," Eddie’s headache dissipates slightly and he smiles, “it is.” 

Especially because in less than an hour he’ll be curled up in bed alongside Coop, sipping chicken noodle soup, watching crappy daytime TV and not even thinking about the useless shit he’s missing out on at work. 

Him and Coop?

They’ll make it. 

It’s not even a doubt in his mind anymore. 

Oh, and his headache? 

So worth it.

**FIN**


End file.
